you said would you cut the deficit in half. it's now four years later. we still have trillion dollar deficits. >> reporter: mitt romney came into the debate trailing in the polls but that could change after last night's performance. >> anytime a challenger stands on the stage with the president in a first debate they tend to get a bounce. i expect that could happen here. >> reporter: the romney campaign believes the governor scored a knockout. >> i believe that governor romney was the clear winner of this debate. if it was a boxing match it would have been called. >> reporter: an instant cbs news poll chose romney the overwhelming winner. 46% of the people we surveyed said romney won the debate. but moderator and pbs anchor jim lehrer might not feel the same way. >> i'm sorry, jim, i'm going to stop this subsidy to pbs. i'm going to stop other things. i like pbs. i love big bird. i actually like you, too. but i'm not going to keep on spending money for things to borrow money from china to pay for it. >> reporter: they will square off again october 16. th